directors: Yukiro Dravarious & Duncan Whom
language: English, some Japanese, couple of sentences of German and French
length: actually not sure but about 2 hours
watched on: 4 May 2017

This is that rare review which I know will be read by the creators, since they’re my friends making an amateur project last year. I’ll try to be nice…

I got a sneak preview from Duncan about a month before watching this, and then went to the second screening on the premiere night – in a BDSM dungeon, of all places, with cages and strange-looking seats. (By the way, I just grabbed this image from a google search, as I usually do, managing to somehow filter out images from Gone Girl – I think it’s from Remiko’s blog. If you’d like me not to use the image, or have a better thumbnail image, please let me know)

The movie is set in Tokyo’s underground drag scene, so it features a few people I know from going to their shows. The plot, insofar as there is one, follows an American private detective who travels to Japan in search of a missing girl, somehow involved in the drag scene. Meanwhile, the drag queens conspire to set about armageddon. Or something. The film deliberately eschews plot at many moments, but it was more coherent than I’d expected from the previews I’d had. It has a deliberate B-movie aesthetic, and a lot of ridiculous gore, with fake blood spattered everywhere.

The main problem with it is that it’s probably incomprehensible to people outside our social group – I think there are too many in-jokes. A lot of the drag queen characters especially weren’t fully introduced. Also, it does have a bit of an episodic feel, and might be too ambitious. But I enjoyed it, and I think it’d stand a second viewing, to help me better understand it.

The other thing, although I think this is part of the aesthetic of amateur B-movies, and not necessarily a big problem, is that the sound and image were sometimes unbalanced. But I think this could be fixed.

It was long-awaited by all, so it was great to finally see it, and I enjoyed the sensation of recognizing quite a lot of the cameos. Thumbs up!

This is a movie I can’t quite believe it took me this long to get around to. I certainly could have had the chance to watch it before, but I had a bunch of DVDs shoved into my hands at my friend’s house – this one following Drive.

I referenced this film last year when reviewing Bavo Defurne’s short film Saint, which also deals with the execution of Saint Sebastian, but putting a lot more erotic emphasis on the execution itself, and treats it more like a crescendo.

Apart from a frankly iconic opening scene with colourfully-decorated men dancing with giant dildoes, it’s set in the desert, where a group of Roman soldiers have been sent. But Sebastian, once the emperor’s favourite, now refuses to fight, as he’s a Christian, and they’re pacifists (what a change from then to now!). He’s strung up and whipped as a result. It’s also implied that his eventual execution, bare nude, is because he refuses to return the love of his centurion. The other characters make fun of him.

This movie is basically a parade of naked male flesh. There are so many penises on display throughout the movie that I’m frankly surprised it got past the 1970s censors. There’s a really erotic scene between two of the side characters that I’m definitely surprised wasn’t censored, although they don’t do any “actual sex”.

I was also very pleased and surprised to find that the film’s dialogue is entirely in Latin, although the way it’s pronounced varies in quality by actor, some of them using more accurate pronunciations than others. It lends some kind of strange, if absolutely unnecessary, authenticity to the film, as if we’re really looking back in time to the 3rd century.

Not a lot really happens as such in the movie – it’s mostly characters lazing around in the sun and tackling each other – but I mostly just sat back and enjoyed the fit young bodies on the screen. Definitely worth it.

I spoke a bit of the perils of hype last year when I reviewed Deadpool. I first heard about Moonlight at least half a year ago, when people were talking about it online. As it’s a film about a gay black man in America, I never thought it’d even be released in Japan – it only became apparent that it would even get a release here when it became a front-runner for the Oscars, and it even had its release date moved forward a few weeks to the end of March when it was announced as the winner. Sure enough, it didn’t play well here, and it’s already finished its run at my local cinema. (Not to pit them against each other, but La La Land is playing much better here.)

So I had this movie hyped to me for such a long time, and I should have just streamed it ages ago. It turns out I’ve already seen a lot of the pivotal moments of the film in Tumblr gifsets without spoiler warnings.

It’s undoubtedly a beautiful film, especially in its use of colour, and it’s definitely groundbreaking for being the first LGBT film to win Best Picture at the Oscars – and one of very few with an almost 100% black cast.

But the subject matter is definitely depressing – it deals with all kinds of issues including drugs and other trappings of life for young black people growing up in such housing estates in Miami. Its main character is very repressed over the story, especially about his sexuality.

The film is split into three acts, the three stages of the main character Chiron’s life, as his identity shifts in various ways and he comes of age – starting with him in elementary school, then in high school, then as an adult revisiting his past.

The three acts actually feel more like shorts, since the actors playing the main characters change each time. I also expected Mahershala Ali, who plays the boy’s mentor in the first act, to continue into the next act, but he disappears from the story. In the end, the only actor who is in all three parts is the boy’s mother, Naomie Harris, who’s addicted to drugs, causing one of the film’s central conflicts.

So basically, I wanted more. I also found the main character, in all three incarnations, to be a man of few words, frustratingly so. Other characters do the talking for him, and he often just stands there looking torn and hurt – and his actors all do this effectively, but I wanted to hear more of his story rather than just have it all implied. But no wonder he’s repressed, given the circumstances. You can take this part either way – I can see that it might be poignant for someone else watching this, perhaps with that lived experience. For me the repressed sexuality and possible coming-out seemed trite compared to other gay-themed movies.

That said, I’m definitely glad I got to see the movie, especially to see it on the big screen. I think it was crafted very well, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the director can do in the future. I have a feeling he’s going to have a fruitful career ahead of him.

You may have already heard about this movie for being shot entirely on an iPhone 5. Actually, I hadn’t, I’d only heard its name whispered on the wind a few times before my friend sat us down to watch it on their big projector. Watching movies in style. I should get me one of those…

Anyway, the movie is groundbreaking for that in itself, and it also features a diverse cast of genuine transgender people – something Hollywood has yet to catch up and try themselves.

They are playing hookers, though, not exactly the most positive of portrayals, and they’re very bitchy characters, but the movie rests on their shoulders – it’s very much character-driven and not so much plot-driven. And they carry it well.

It’s set in LA on Christmas Eve, but you could have fooled me – it looks like it’s still summer in California. A lot of the movie features driving around suburban LA, particularly of one taxi driver, and of the guys that pick up the girls on the sidewalk.

The movie was interesting and funny in a black way, and although it’s not my favourite one that I’ve seen recently, I definitely recommend it. There are a few storylines, and it’s unclear at first how they will interact, but it all comes together for the climax. For me the only real problem was (spoilers?) the guy they’re fighting over. I don’t quite see the appeal in him!

But yes, good coherent style and tone. Well worth a watch. Still don’t understand why it’s called Tangerine, though.